WASHINGTON – The Pentagon yesterday launched a blistering attack on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for boosting “enemy propaganda” by demanding the U.S. military whip up plans for withdrawal from Iraq.

The forceful pummeling – in response to Clinton’s request that the Defense Department “prepare plans for the phased redeployment” – came in a terse letter to the Democratic presidential front-runner from Defense Undersecretary Eric Edelman.

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Edelman wrote in the July 16 letter.

“Such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks,” he added.

Clinton, who voted in favor of the war in 2002, has been calling for the pullout of combat troops as she ratchets her anti-war rhetoric to woo liberal voters who make up the core of the Democratic Party.

In May, she called on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace to design plans for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops and their equipment to avoid “the failure to adequately plan for the conflict.”

In addition to the formal request, Clinton urged Pace in a private meeting to make a blueprint for the complex withdrawal – a plan she insisted was necessary, given congressional Democrats’ increasing efforts to end the war.

“Any military operation requires contingency planning so that the military and our troops are prepared if the current plan is unsuccessful. It would be irresponsible not to engage in similar planning in Iraq,” she said.

Edelman’s stinging rebuke is surprising, given that Clinton is a rising member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has oversight of the Pentagon.

Clinton’s Senate spokesman Philippe Reines said Edelman’s letter was “at once outrageous and dangerous,” and added that Clinton planned to respond directly to his boss, Secretary of Defense Gates.